Today, CVLT Nation is ultra hyped to share with the world our artist to artist interview series, featuring Jenks Miller of Horseback interviewing the all of the members of Locrian. I’m impressed at the depth of this interview – both parties really opened up. I know that Horseback and Locrian have both recently released projects that have reshaped music, so to be able to hear where they are coming from is awesome! After the jump, check out the many different thoughts that go through the minds of Locrian, and the kind of energy went into creating their new album, The Clearing!

Friday, November 18, 2011

For 2011 LOCRIAN member TERENCE HANNUM has been making a publication every other month. January's NEGATIVE LITANIES was the compendium documenting the monthly 2010 series and exhibition. March's ABLATION. was a clandestine dissection of some video footage featuring BLOODYMINDED. For May HANNUM joined forces with frequent collaborator SCOTT TRELEAVEN and made DEATH POSTURE. For July he collaborated with ALEXANDER BINDER and they made DARK MATTER/DUNKLE MATERIE while for September he created PURIFICATION. For his final publication of the year he teamed up with 5NAKEFORK RECORDS and published his first bound book, THE UNHOLY BOW.

Slowly the crowd gathers, heads hung as the musicians pick up their instruments. Upon the first note of feedback the heads start moving. Both performer and witness begin a ritualized dance in a flurry of hair, a profane genuflection. An unholy bow.

THE UNHOLY BOW is the final publication in artist TERENCE HANNUM's bi-monthly publication series for 2011. This issue focuses on the group ritual of the headbang ubiquitous in heavy metal culture, by cropping drawings and digital photo collages into a printed cadence and features a brief musing cadence from the artist. Printed in an Edition of 150

"Is The Clearing a metal album? Absolutely not. Even the two minutes of blastbeats and howling in the middle of “Augury in an Evaporating Tower” are just another part of the song’s stew. But there’s a reason why Locrian collaborate regularly with members of Nachtmystium, Yakuza and Velnias. They access the alienated moods and harsh outlook of metal’s blackest wings in distinct but complementary ways. Their sound accesses terror without rubbing our faces in it. Accessible? Not unless you listen to Merzbow on your way to work. Riveting? Completely." More here.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Grayson Currin wrote an interesting review of the Blut Aus Nord album and had this to say about the state of American metal:

"One of the year's biggest threads in heavy music has centered on the loose enclave of American metal bands reshaping black metal and, in turn, introducing it to fresh faces. From Liturgy and Locrian to Horseback and Atlas Moth, they've each manipulated the decades-old, forever-infamous strain in their own identifiable ways. Whatever your views on Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's verbosity or Krallice's kinetic cascades, it's inarguable that they've all passed the sounds of corpsepaint and battle axes to bigger, more generalized crowds not overly concerned with someone's respective KVLT credentials. One reason for this, of course, is that these bands generally look and talk mostly like your average rock dudes; they give interviews, tour, and generally wear band T-shirts and tattered jeans. They're not the first North Americans to mutate black metal, neither by a long shot nor by a decade, but they are distinctly identifiable people manipulating a sound that, compared to the indie mainstream, feels exotic and perhaps a tad dangerous." More here.

A really nice, well written, and thoughtful review of "The Clearing" on Tiny Mix Tapes today.

"[O]n The Clearing they are masters of economy, and have formed their album into an utterly unique and precise sound-work that, even as it evokes so much, feels remarkably original — in particular, amid the bland ‘experimentation’ that happens in so much US black metal — and continuously draws this listener, entranced and amazed and a little frightened, back into itself as a singular, haunted entity."

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

"If you're into underground experimental music, it's pretty likely that you've encountered Chicago's own Locrian. The trio has been pushing boundries for extreme music since their inception back in 2005 mixing drone, noise, ambient, krautrock, black and doom metal, and other genres into their own unique sound." More here.

"Locrain are at the top of the dark experimental music heap these days. Although their songs lack traditional form and structure, there a visceral quality to their music that recalls some of the most potent and powerful metal and post-rock. Last year's stunning genre-smashing "The Crystal World" made Locrian the band to pay attention to, while raising the bar for everyone else. Since then, they have produced a collaborative LP and single with the like-minded Horseback and the "Dort Ist Der Weg b/w Frozen in Ash" 7", which, for my money, is one of the best releases in any format this year. So to say that "The Clearing" was one of this year's most anticipated releases for me is a bit of an understatement. Even without hearing the whole thing, this was already a must have album among discerning music fans. Naturally, "The Clearing" not only lives up to expectations, but exceeds them to an extreme."

"The Clearing is a lonely affair; it’s a desolate world of permanent night, permanent rain, perfect void. The nearly 18-minute-long self-titled closing track’s a commitment, evolving from minimal John Carpenter synth bounces to reverb ecstasy to the pits of screeching, agonizing, alienating nothingness. With Christmas coming, this album’s the perfect gift for an overly sunny loved one."

Monday, November 14, 2011

It sounds like Fan Death Records now has the vinyl for "The Clearing." We should be getting our copies of the album very soon. I'm sure that anyone who ordered the album from Fan Death so far will be getting their copies very soon.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

"Plenty of bands play music that sounds dark, but few can make every note bleed black and breathe smoke. Count Locrian as part of that select circle. Something about the Chicago trio's sound is inherently ominous-- it's hard to imagine them playing "Chopsticks" without turning it into an earth-threatening thunderstorm. That effect is obvious in their noisier, more chaotic moments, where metallic noise and intense howls coalesce into scary crescendos. But it's just as strong in their quieter, more ambient stretches, when they build tension not from heightened climax but from sustained nuance."